The number of home networks is increasing. These networks typically comprise a collection of different types of devices, such as desktop and laptop computers, games consoles, home servers, media centers, smartphones and IP (internet protocol) telephones. These devices may be used for a wide range of different activities and in some situations the different activities may compete for access to resources within the home network.
Larger networks within corporations or other organizations have policies to control access to resources and a network administrator to set policies and monitor and control the use of the network. Such networks also comprise network elements which perform automatic traffic management. The same cannot be said for home networks or small enterprise networks.
The embodiments described below are not limited to implementations which solve any or all of the disadvantages of known network management systems.